RIP Sean Taylor, Cont'd: The story remains the top of sports-fans' minds, with very little sense to be made of it all. I'll stick to one superficial thing:

There is rumor that the Redskins will open on defense against the Bills with only 10 players, as a tribute to Taylor. That seems like as nice and fitting a moment as an NFL team can create on the field.

CFB Coaching Carousel: Houston Nutt in at Ole Miss, and he's going to be paid twice what Ed Orgeron was paid... and that's just to start. I could see Nutt being more successful than Coach O (not a high bar), and he's got transfer QB Jevon Snead for a couple of years to build on.

Meanwhile, Kirk Ferentz will not be moving to Michigan, contrary to rumors. Les Miles is still your clubhouse leader.

CFB Awards Season: The CampPlayer of the Year finalists are Daniel, McFadden, Tebow, Dixon and Ryan. I think it'll be Tebow, with Daniel the dark-horse IF he has the game of his life in a win over Okla. McFadden is also a worthy choice.

CFB Bowling: South Florida – the sensation of the season early on and the only team to beat West Virginia – will be going to the Sun Bowl. Meanwhile, UConn will go to the Meineke Bowl in Charlotte.

Is USC going to play home games at the Rose Bowl next season? That's one way to ensure your team goes to the Rose Bowl. (No, seriously: How special could a trip to the Rose Bowl be in January if you played there 8 times during the regular season?)

Ricky Williams Watch: That was fast. Ricky is out for the rest of the season, making that oh-so-clever/get-you-into-the-playoffs waiver-wire pickup last week a huge dud.

NFLPA vs. NFLPA Alumni: Active players are making donations from their December 23 paychecks to the alumni fund. (Let's leave for a second the travesty that this is a necessary step at all.) I hope more players follow the lead of Kyle Turley, who is donating his entire payday.

Here's a must-read: Lion In Oilhas a great post about Turley's effort on this front.

Packers to hire Northwestern AD Mark Murphy as Team President? That's the rumor. Make jokes about NU's athletics (outside of football and hoops, by the way, NU is arguably one of the Top 20 athletic programs in the country) or my quote-unquote "iffy" allegiance (bunk), but I am a huge fan of Murphy's. He's as smart as any college AD in the country, insanely credentialed and the perfect guy to lead a franchise as iconic as the Packers. Good luck to him, and I hope the next guy NU brings in can match the success in the non-revenue sports to football and hoops.

RIP Bill Willis, 86: A Hall of Fame guard with the Browns and OhioState's first African-American All-American. I leave it to the substantial Buckeyes contingent who reads the blog to provide some extra analysis on Willis' life and career.

Vick Trial: The state trial will start in April. Book that vacation now to avoid having to deal with the media circus.

MLB Hot Stove: Is Miguel Cabrera headed to the Angels? Say this for LAA: They are pulling out all the stops to compete with Boston and New York. They might not have signed A-Rod, but to get Torii Hunter and Miggy Cabrera to hit next to Vlad Guerrero is plenty bold.

MLB PED Scandal: George Mitchell's report will come before the end of the year, making it either a really crappy holiday season for Bud Selig and the rest or a really terrible New Year's. (Or, alternatively, the report is buried during the distracting holidays.)

NBA Stud: LeBron had 38 and the Cavs beat the Celtics. OK, so maybe all that "if the season ended today, Dwight Howard would be the MVP" talk from me yesterday was a bit kneejerk-contrarian. I have seen the Cavs play in person -- besides LeBron, they are terrible not that great. There is no player more valuable than LBJ.

Kevin Durant Watch: Scored 25 in a loss to the Lakers. It was Seattle's 5th loss in a row and the 2-13 start is the team's worst start ever. Kobe had 35; hope Durant was paying attention.

RIP to Dr. Robert Cade, 80, famous for inventing Gatorade and thus sparking a sports and pop-cultural phenomenon that would include the myth of Michael Jordan, the NFL "Gatorade bath" and the entire "sport-drink" fad of the last decade. If you wanted to impact sports and culture, there are worse legacies to leave behind.

"Dancing with the Stars" finale: The jocks continue to dominate. Helio Castroneves won the comp, making him the second straight athlete to win (Apolo Ohno won last season, Emmitt Smith won the season before, Jerry Rice was the runner-up the season before that.)

The athletes have created a "Dancing" dynasty – if you're a sports fan and you wagered before the season began on a winner simply because they were the athlete in the bunch whose name you recognized, collect your prize. (If you're gambling on DWTS, alas, you have other problems.)

Follow-up point on a specific Taylor meme: Any angry talk (presumably from Broncos fans) about "What about Darrent Williams?" needs to cool off. No one is saying Darrent Williams' death -- murder -- wasn't a tragedy and wasn't remembered. Sean Taylor's death can be one of the more tragic in sports in "recent memory" without excluding Williams, and I don't need to name-check Williams in a post about Taylor just to prove it. A total focus on Taylor yesterday was hardly inappropriate.

58 comments:

That article on Lion in Oil is amazing. Gene Upshaw should be ashamed, but it is no different than most of the CEO and leaders today. Use everything you can out of your workers and when their usefullness is gone, dump and forget.

Not that Lebron isn't a good player, but just because he is good and on a crappy team doesn't IMO make him the MVP. It just makes me feel sad for him,

I do feel that there has been more coverage of the Taylor murder than of the Williams murder. But there are obvious reasons:

1. Taylor was killed during the heart of the season.2. Taylor was on Washington. Bigger market, more sportswriters (i.e. both PTI guys are from Washington).3. The situation is more weird and scarier with Taylor. Guy was sleeping in his house. Darrent Williams was in a drive-by. Though tragic, not uncommon.

I got stuck watching Dancing with the Stars last night because that is what the wife was watching. The only reason Helio won was the insanely hot blonde he was dancing with.

An interesting tidbit of info Mangino won the coaches Big XII coach of the year award. The AP Big XII coach of the year was split between Mangino and Pinkel (10 votes each). Daniel was Offensive player of the year and 1st team QB (no brainer). Reesing tied for second team with Harrell from Texas Tech. Would things have been different if KU won saturday?

If you had watched the Celts Cavs game you would have noticed that Drew Gooden had a sick game. Bron Bron ain't doin it himself. Even as a Celts fan that was one of the best basketball games I have seen in years.

And by the way Apollo Ono won the last dancing with the stars. Another Athlete non the less.

I don't think the rest of the Cavaliers are great by any means, but they aren't that bad. One player can't carry everyone every game. Ilgauskas has been an all-star a few times and would have more if not for injuries early in his career. Drew Gooden is a good PF when he doesn't have the mental defensive lapses he is prone to. The Cavs are playing well at the moment because a lineup of him on the floor with those 2 and then adding Pavolvic, Gibson, and Damon Jones gives him 4 guys who can knock down shots finally.

Their depth is low right now with injuries and AV holding out, but I think they'll be tough come playoff time again. LeBron might be one of the more underrated players in the league actually. Everyone knows he is good, but the numbers he is putting up right now are comletely insane. If someone else were doing it, it would be getting a lot more coverage. He is at a near triple double average his last 7 games with an extremely high PPG.

It was a good regular season game last night that was a lot of fun to watch. The surprising thing was that the Cavs starters all outscored their matchup. If the Cavs can get more out of the bench, it would be a lot better. I don't like Ilgauskas playing that many minutes at this point, especially being at Detroit tonight.

Does LeBron lose in OT? I am not sure what his record is, but everytime I watch the LeBrons, i mean the Cavs go to OT, seems like they win.

Start to watch the C's more carefully. They have no played two of the top 4 teams in the East(them being one of them) and have lost to them, definitely their two biggest tests so far in the early going. Interesting to see how they handle Detroit as well.

Dan, you forgot another athlete who won on "Dancing with the Stars"--Apolo Anton Ohno!

ESPN has a website where people can vote for their choice in the Heisman derby. Apparently, someone who likes Chase McDaniel has figured out a way to freep the poll because he is WAY ahead of Tim Tebow. Gator fans, get on your computers and VOTE!

There is rumor that the Redskins will open on defense against the Bills with only 10 players, as a tribute to Taylor. That seems like as nice and fitting a moment as an NFL team can create on the field.

That's interesting on many levels. What play do the Buffalo "Clinging to slim playoff hopes" Bills call against 10 men?

A bomb to Evans against the vacant CB spot?A rush up the middle?

Either way, they're going against a team filled with emotion... Stir up the already buzzing hornets nest and attempt an early lead? [insert derogatory Evil Belichick comment here]

I may win ahole of the day, but if the skins want to send out 10 men, it could completely blow up in their face. How fitting would a 75 yard tribute TD be?

This is probably more for yesterday, but Turner Gill would be a great hire for Nebraska.

He took an absolutely putrid University at Buffalo team and made them respectable. At one point they were in 1st in the MAC East, and lost their last two games to the now 1st and 2nd team in their division. That is after only two seasons with NO talent on a team that usually is winning 1 game a year.

The guy knows football and knows how to build a team. With Nebraska's budget he'll be able to boost their recruiting back up and they will be a force within three years.

I love that roboninja came out of the gate taking shit about dancing with the stars yet everyone else here seems to watch it. I catch it when I am home from school as my mother is obsessed with it.

I don't think the Cavs are an awful team but besides Lebron the supporting cast can be very very inconsistent(this is an observation from last year, haven't seen much this year).

Supposedly Varajao(sp?) ain't coming back, that should piss off the king.

MarcoMarco, do you really expect the bills to run a play if the skins are trying to honor Shaun Taylor? I suspect that the Bills, and other player around the league, are as troubled by this as Taylor's teammates nd will respect whatever memorial the Redskins choose to honor him.

Sparty, Regarding the Celtics...I like the spin you put on it. Now let me put the Celtics fan spin on it; The C's have only lost 2 games this season, to 2 of the best teams in the East, on the road, in complete and total nail biters. Also, they could(should?) have won both games. Loss to Charlotte came when Pierce back-rimmed the game winning shot. Last night, Ray Allen bricks 2 free throws (94% at the line coming into the game) with less than 24 seconds left is regulation, sending the game to Over time AKA "Lebron Time". You simply can't win every game. Hell, even the '86 Celtics, the greatest team ever assembled (that should rile some people up) lost 14 road games.

Yeah, The Cavs ain't that bad at all. Drew bleeping Gooden couldn't miss a shot last night, and Z kept Garnett off the boards. Gooden has got to lose that Abe Lincoln beard though. Only one thing could make him believe that his beard looks good. Bong....hits.

beetle. 11-2, 10 of the games against the crap of the East, and the middle and bottom of the East still sucks. its so easy to get Boston fans defensive. you have yet to win anything with these guys. you still have doc rivers as your coach, and you have not beaten the better teams, no spin, just the facts.

I liked it better when USC did the XP try sans kicker earlier this year, and I hate USC.

To the guys who are "forced" to watch dancing with the stars: BUY ANOTHER TV FOR YOUR HOUSE. And if you have more than 1, you aren't being FORCED to do anything, you like it and can thank yourselves and the rest of the reality tv watching droolers out there for the writers strike that is costing the rest of us the few good shows that remain on tv.

I think I know what it's like to be a Sooners fan, I am supremely nervous trying to believe in Bob Stoops winning a big game for me. The same Stoops who can suck it for saying "boo hoo, we have to play in a conference championship" Really? talk to your conference commissioner and university presidents who are sucking on the teet of BIG SODA!

I am not sure how long a college football team should give a coach to turn a team around. Greg Robinson took over Syracuse 3 years ago. He has won 6 games I believe and 3 of those were against Buffalo (who they barely beat this year). Two years before he took over, they won the Big East and went to a bowl game. In Pasqualoni's last year, they were a .500 team.

Any coach should probably get 4 years but winning an average of 3 games per season for a team that used to be a regular top 25 team is probably not going to turn it around in his 4th year.

Just have a general question when it seems everyone is talking about Sean Taylor's death. I have seen quite a few tragic deaths lately. My friend's mother just died at age 54, a coworker's wife just died at 43 leaving behind 4 little girls, another coworker's daughter is in a coma for 4 months now after hitting a tree and I can go on but it is not necessary. All of these people I know were far better people than Sean Taylor. They just weren't as good football players.

It is not that I don't think any death including Taylor's is tragic, they obviously are. However it seems ridiculous to me how the media can't let go of events that happen to celebrities or pseudo celebrities.

I think the Skins will push forward on emotion and play well on Sunday. The bigger problem will be next week, when they are unfortunately scheduled to face the Bears on Thursday night. That means they have only 3 days between the games, and it is believed that one of those days - Monday - will be Sean's funeral in Miami, which the whole team and organization will attend.

Grew up in Jersey just over the bridge back in the early and mid 80s. Only teams that were relevent in this area were the Islanders, Mets, Giants, and Yanks. My father is a Giants and Yanks fans, so i followed suit with them. He was also a Knick and Ranger fan, but at that time there was nothing really going with them and I guess you could say I had no idea about Hockey and Basketball for the most part. Moved outside of Detroit back in 87. Pistons and Red Wings were red hot and MSU just won the Rose Bowl. Wings were on the up with Stevie Y and played the Oilers tough in the Conf Finals, and the Pistons were a bad pass away from beating your Celtics. Of course we know the following year that the Pistons ended the Celtic Dynasty the Bad Boys were only a year away from owning the NBA. At this time the Yanks stunk, but my father taught me that I could not turn away from them just because they sucked and attened MSU, hence Sparty. So 15 years later, I got back to Jersey via Miami and here I am. A Pistons and Red Wing fan in New Jersey. I may be the only one. BTW, hate all florida teams.

cycledan~ I agree with you. I don't know if you guys have paid attention to the "Baby Grace" story about the little girl's body that was found in Texas and it was her loser mom and her new loser husband that did it, but she was from up here. Her grandma is a nurse at the nursing home where my husband's Grandma was and where my co-worker's mom is now. This poor baby didn't have a chance because her mother wouldn't give the grandmother custody. To me, this is a lot more tragic.

cycledan - it's not about whether Sean Taylor was a "better person" than anyone you mentioned, or whether his death is any more important that anyone else's.

It's a fact that his death has an impact on more people because of his fame. This isn't a media creation - it is a reflection of the world we live in, where athletes and celebrities are revered. Hundreds of Redskins fans showed up at the park to mourn him last night, and there is a pall over the city. More than one local columnist has compared the reaction around here to when Len Bias died. We always tend to think of 24 year old star athletes in the prime of their careers as invincible.

Ummm - as a UCLA fan, I can go to the Rose Bowl any Saturday and feel extremely lucky to experience a game there. And the Rose Bowl game? Always the goal. The place doesn't get old or any less special.

Also, if beating USC at the Coliseum means we go to the Rose Bowl game (ala 1993), even more satisfying.

"my firm belief that college football's regular season IS a de facto playoff system, unique in all of sports"

Yeah keep telling yourself that lie. When you lose in the playoffs, that eliminates you from winning the title. So under your dumb logic, WVA, USC, Missouri, Ohio St, and VT should be out and LSU should never have had a chance to be eliminated twice.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.